


Kid

by EmmaTheRevelator (BadWolf1988)



Category: Original Work
Genre: 90s, Boyband, F/M, Fluff, Older Man/Younger Woman
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-14 22:53:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13600146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadWolf1988/pseuds/EmmaTheRevelator
Summary: Kennedy Morgan has known Zander Scott since she was eight-years-old...and it was love at first sight when she laid eyes on her popstar older brother's bandmate. She carries a secret torch (as well as pain) for ten long years. When Kennedy is eighteen and a pop star herself, Zander suddenly stops seeing her as a little girl...





	1. December 24, 1996

**DECEMBER 24, 1996**

**BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS**

        I was so excited! My big brother, Asher, would be home any minute. I hadn't seen him in months.

        Asher was the oldest in our family of five, I was the youngest. Asher was seventeen years older than me and a professional singer. Last year, he had formed an all-male vocal group (God help you if you called them a boy band) with some of his friends. The band, called BLAZE (all caps, please) had been signed to a recording contract not long after that. They had just released their debut album overseas and had been touring Europe and Asia for the last six months. No one had heard of BLAZE here in the states yet but Asher said they were really popular in Germany and Japan.

        Asher had called mom a half hour earlier to let her know that he had safely landed at Logan Airport and would be home as soon as he could get a taxi. He also told her that he was bringing one of his bandmates, Zander, with him. Apparently, there was a blizzard hitting his native Texas and all flights had been canceled. Asher invited him to spend the holidays with us.

        “Asher's home!” my oldest sister, Siobhan yelled from somewhere downstairs. I jumped up off of my twin bed at the same time that my ten-year-old sister, Briana, jumped up off of hers. We were both in such a hurry that we tried to squeeze out of our bedroom door at the same time. Somehow, I made it to the top of the stairs first... okay, fine, I had shoved my other older sister, Darcy, out of the way but either way, I was the first one down the stairs. On the last step, I lost my footing and tripped. I would have ended up hitting mom's freshly polished (I could smell the lemon cleaner in the air) hardwood floor face first if someone hadn't caught me. I looked up and... my heart felt funny. It felt like it was beating faster in my chest. The man that had caught me had the greenest eyes that I had ever seen and a warm and friendly smile on his face.

        “You okay, kid?” He chuckled.

        My face grew hot. “Yeah, thanks,” I mumbled before I laid eyes on my big brother. Suddenly forgetting my embarrassment, I ran and launched myself into his arms.

        “It's good to see you too, munchkin.” Asher laughed and hugged me before setting me back down on my feet.

        “I've missed you,” I told him with an adoring smile on my face.

        “I've missed you too.” Asher smiled warmly at me in return before turning to the man who had caught me. “Kennedy, this is my friend and the lead singer of BLAZE, Zander Scott. Zander, this is my youngest sister, Kennedy.”

        “It's nice to meet you, Kennedy.”

        Why did I like Zander's southern drawl so much? And why did my heart feel funny and my face heat up every time he talked to me? This was a new experience and it was making me uncomfortable.

        “It's nice to meet you too,” I mumbled before quickly escaping to go and watch TV in the living room. The new episode of _Rugrats_ was coming on.

        I could hear my mom and sisters talking in the entry hall as I settled in on the couch.

        “Isn't that adorable?” I heard my mom say.

        “What?” There was fifteen-year-old Darcy.

        “Kennedy has a crush on Zander.” Nineteen-year-old Siobhan laughed.

        I really hoped that Zander wasn't still standing there to hear her say that. Teenage sisters were real witches.

 

 

 

 


	2. April 23, 2000

**APRIL 23, 2000**

**BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS**

  
  


        I really hated my life. Why couldn't Zander spend Easter with his own family? Why did he always have to come home with Asher when his plans fell through? This was torture!

        At twelve, I was finally old enough to understand the warm feelings I was having for Zander but I was much too young to do anything about it. Instead, I had to sit back and watch while his face was plastered across the covers of teen magazines (BLAZE's debut album had been a smash hit) and he jumped from girlfriend to girlfriend... and today was no exception.

        It was the first time I had seen Asher in months, and by extension, Zander. With BLAZE a chart-topping success, the guys had been on the road and doing press all year. Zander's parents were out of the country for Easter so Mom had once again invited him to join our family for the holiday. I had been super pumped for his visit right up until he had shown up with a bleach blonde tramp wearing a short skirt and too much makeup. Apparently, her name was Cindi and her and Zander had been dating for months. The worst part of the whole situation was the fact that Cindi was actually very sweet and my only reason for hating her was my feelings for her boyfriend.

        We were all seated around the dinner table, enjoying our desert, when Cindi started going on and on about the trip her and Zander had taken to Hawaii and I finally had enough.

        “Mom, may I be excused?” I looked to my mother at the head of the table. All I wanted to do was lock myself in my room with the guitar that Asher had gotten me for my birthday. I wanted to get lost in my music and forget all about one Zander Maurice Scott. Crap on a cracker. Why, oh why did I know Zander's middle name? Probably because I devoured every article written about Zander... even the ones I knew to be total nonsense. The fact that Cindi was seated at the dining room table with her arms draped around Zander's neck proved that he wasn't dating Britney Spears. Besides, everyone knew that Britney was cheating on Justin Timberlake with Prince William anyway.

        “Sure, honey,” Mom nodded her perfectly styled brown head – her hair always seemed to look like a football for some reason.

        “It was good to see you again, Kennedy.” The object of my affections gave me a warm, sincere smile as I stood and pushed my chair in.

        I gave him a tight smile and ignored Cindi altogether before heading upstairs to my bedroom. I closed the door, got my guitar out of the case that was propped up against my fish tank, grabbed my songbook off of my desk, and went and sat on my bed to write.

        My room was my sanctuary. When Siobhan had moved out after college, Briana and I had finally gotten our own rooms. Briana had been the typical girl and decorated her room with lots of pink and flowers, but not me. My bedspread was black and had outrageous orange flames. The fish in the tank under the window glowed in the dark and the walls were painted black. The only poster for modern music on the walls was the BLAZE poster that Asher had sent me when they were touring Europe. The rest of the posters held the faces of The Beatles, Joan Baez, Michael Jackson, and Johnny Cash. A rather eclectic group but my heroes none the less.

        A few hours must have passed and I had written an entire song when a knock came on my bedroom door.

        “Come in!” I called.

        The door opened and I was surprised when Zander stepped into the room. “Hey, kid, I was getting ready to head out and I wanted to say goodbye. I probably won't see you again until the holidays.” He smiled when he noticed me holding my guitar. “Looks like Asher ain't the only one in the Morgan clan who's musically inclined. Can I take a peek?” he nodded at my songbook.

        I quickly flipped the songbook over. I had little hearts that said things like 'Mrs. Zander Scott' and 'K + Z' drawn all over the place. “Sorry,” I could feel myself blushing. “I have this thing about people reading my music,” I lied. “I'll play it for you though.” Nice going, Einstein. I had just volunteered to sing Zander a song that I had written about him.

        “Love to hear it, kid.” Zander nodded and I wanted to scream when he once again called me 'kid'.

        Taking a deep breath, I started strumming my guitar and began to sing.

“ _Invisible girl,_

_He barely knows your name._

_Invisible girl,_

_You have to know he'll never feel the same._

 

_Different ages,_

_Different place,_

_Invisible girl,_

_You might as well be living on different planes of reality._

 

_Invisible girl,_

_You're not concealin' nothin'_

_It's on your face for all to see,_

_You love him like Desi loved Lucy,_

_Invisible girl...”_

        As I finished singing, I looked up to find Zander wearing what could only be described as a proud smile on his face. “I'm going to talk to Asher and the other guys about maybe having you open for us one night when we have a local show.” He couldn't be serious. I was only twelve! “Your voice is like a young Stevie Nicks and your songwriting is amazing for someone so young.”

        “Really?” I gave him a hopeful smile.

        “Really,” he nodded before he turned serious. “And whoever is making you feel invisible is an idiot. I'm sure there are a lot of boys out there who would treat you better, kid.”

        I didn't want a boy. I wanted a man. That was my problem. I wondered what Zander would say if he knew that he was the one who made me feel invisible. He was my idiot.


	3. July 4, 2004

**Independence Day, 2004**

**Boston, Massachusetts**

  
  


        “ _...and the home of the brave...”_

        I hadn't wanted to sing the National Anthem at the Red Sox game that 4th of July. I was freakin' sixteen. I wanted to be out partying with my friends, setting off illegal fireworks and doing a bunch of other things my mom would murder me for doing. I'd been in the spotlight since I had released my debut album when I was fourteen and I had a good girl reputation to protect. I couldn't very well say no when the Mayor of Boston personally asked me to appear.

        I abandoned the field at Fenway Park as soon as I politely could and was shocked when I ran into Zander and Brice Wood, BLAZE's other lead singer, hanging out with Asher in the owner's box where we were guests during the game. “I never thought I'd see the two of you in the same room ever again,” I snipped as I dug through my purse looking for my small pill case. I couldn't help myself. BLAZE had broken up the previous summer. The reason? Because Brice, the breakout star of the band, wanted to go solo. Asher had told me that Zander had taken it the hardest of all the guys. With Asher, Zander was BLAZE's co-founder and he had been the one to invite Brice, his younger cousin, to join the band. Zander saw Brice's actions as a betrayal and I really couldn't blame him. Brice would have had none of his success had it not been for Zander.

        “My debut album got put on hold,” Brice explained. “I have some free time so I'm tryin' to talk the guys into a BLAZE world tour this winter.” The egotistical asshat spoke like he was doing everyone a favor.

        “You know he's just going to bail again the minute the record label greenlights work on his album, right?” I addressed my brother as I finally located my little gold pill case at the bottom of my purse. “And word around Emerald Wolf is that the album was put on hold because Brice was being a tool to literally every producer that tried to work with him.” Brice and I shared a record label and, Dr. Hemingway, the producer of my latest album, was one of the producers who had jumped ship on the project. He said that Brice was a tyrant who couldn't write a good song to save his life and who had to rely heavily on auto-tune.

        “Kennedy, be nice, please,” Asher sighed.

        “Why are you upset with me? I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking. Brice is the king of asshole land.”

        Asher had to hide his laugh under a cough and Brice looked like he would kill me if we were ever again left alone in a room together.

        “Kennedy, darlin', for me?” Zander looked at me pleadingly. “Play nice, kid.”

        Oh, Brice was so lucky that I liked it when Zander called me 'darlin'' with that sexy southern twang of his. It could make me agree to just about anything. I'd sell my own mother if Zander asked me to with enough country in his voice. I dumped four little white pills into my hand and grabbed a bottle of water off of the refreshment table. After I had swallowed the pills down, I caught Asher giving me a disapproving frown. Not this again.

        “The doctor gave you those when you busted your knee. Your knee doesn't look like it hurts to me,” Asher admonished.

        “That's probably because of the pills,” I rolled my eyes. “Duh.”


	4. February 22, 2006

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter could serve as a trigger for recovering addicts. DO NOT attempt ANYTHING Kennedy does in this or future chapters. You are taking your life into your own hands if you do.

     I had a problem and I had known for over a year. I couldn't stop taking the pain pills. In the last six months, I had even taken to crushing the pills and snorting them for a faster, longer lasting high. If I didn't take them the soul-sucking depression that I had been battling since puberty returned full force. Everything would crash down on me; the guilt of knowing that my unexpected birth was the reason my dad walked out on the family, the weight of being in love with someone who was too old for me and completely out of my league, the crushing loneliness that came from constantly being on the road and away from home. The pills made me forget all of that. What I couldn't forget were the headlines that were currently splashed all over the tabloids.

 _*** KENNEDY MORGAN IN TROUBLE ***_ screamed _Us Weekly_.

 _*** KENNEDY M. CAUGHT SNORTING PILLS ***_ cried _Star Magazine_.

 _*** DID NO ONE TELL HER SHE WASN'T THAT KIND OF KENNEDY ***_ the _National Enquirer_ tried to be witty while running the enlarged photo on its cover.

        “I am so screwed,” I ran a hand through my hair and mumbled to myself.

        The photo in question had been taken six months earlier in LA when I had been recording my last album. I didn't know who the photographer was because I had been pretty blitzed during that recording session.

        My phone vibrated on the coffee table. Picking up the dark purple Motorola Razor, I flipped it open and found two text messages. The first was from Zander.

***** You and me need to talk kid. Your mom told me you were in Paris. Stay there. I'll be there Sunday night. *****

        The second text message was from Asher. I had to ignore an incoming call from my mom to read it.

***** In London but I'll be in Paris by morning. What the hell were you thinking?! You need help, Kennedy. *****

        My life was over. My family and friends, as well as the rest of the world, now knew that I was a junkie. There was no way out of this. I got to my feet and dropped my cell phone into the sleek, modern fish tank that was built into the wall beside the bathroom of my hotel suite. A line of crushed oxy sat waiting for me on the counter.

        “What the fuck,” I shrugged. I was already up a creek with no paddle anyway, grabbing up the rolled up twenty dollar bill, I brought it to my node as I leaned down and expertly snorted the line. Dropping the twenty, I stood up straight and leaned my back against the wall. “What the fuck am I gonna do,” I whispered to myself...and then I caught sight of the razor blade I had used to sort the oxy,


	5. February 23, 2006

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter could serve as a self-harm trigger. Please, read at your own risk.

        It was dark. I knew it was because my eyes were closed but I couldn't seem to force my eyelids open. I didn't have the energy. My entire body was numb. All I could feel was an odd tingly sensation in my wrists. I think it might have been raining. Something wet was constantly falling on me. It was such a weird feeling. I'd never felt warm rain before. What was that banging noise?

        “Kennedy?! Are you in here?! Talk to me, sugar!”

        I knew that voice. It was my favorite voice in the whole wide world. What was Zander doing here? He wasn't supposed to come and yell at me until tomorrow night.

        “Holy shit. ASHER! Call an ambulance! The number's 999 here!”

        Why was Zander freaking out? Who needed an ambulance? I was the only one here. Whoa. The whole world was shaking. Was that why Zander needed an ambulance? Maybe someone had been hurt in the earthquake.

        “Z, what's wrong?!”

        “She hurt herself, man. It's real bad. Just stay out there and call a fucking ambulance! You don't need to see her like this.”

        There was that shaking again. How many freak earthquakes were gonna hit London tonight?

        “Kennedy, darlin', can you hear me?”

        Of course, I could hear him. I wasn't deaf...and just who is the hell was hurt? Zander said 'she.' he was probably talking about his latest airheaded tramp of the month.

        Okay. Now the world wasn't shaking but I was most definitely moving. The rain stopped and suddenly I stopped. The surface below me was cold and hard.

        “Kennedy, I need you to open those pretty eyes of yours.” Zander's words sounded like an order. “Please, baby, I need you to stay with me.” I really wish he couldn't call me baby. It was just another reminder of what I couldn't have. 

        “Z, the operator wants to know if she's breathing? Please, God, tell me she's breathing!” I had never heard Asher sound so scared before. Whatever was going on must be really bad. Asher wasn't easily rattled.

        “She's breathing, but barely,” Zander called back. “They need to get here fast Ash!”

        When Zander said the word 'breathing' I realized for the first time that I was having trouble doing just that. Every inhale was a struggle, making my chest hurt. I felt like I had run a marathon and was permanently out of breath. Starting to panic, breathing became even harder. I once again tried to force my eyes open. They still wouldn't budge. The world was still black.

        I could hear the shrill sound of sirens outside in the distance when I finally realized what was going on. It was me. I was the one who was hurt. I was the one who was in trouble. Those sirens were coming for me. 


End file.
